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You know I went through this recently. So two years ago I thought I would build my own sump using a 55 gal tank. Twin sock filters with a 30 g sump area. Bio balls. It worked ok. The sock filters kept clogging up. Couldn't polish the water. A month ago the acrylic partitions separated from the silicone and I decided to buy an eshopps regular wet dry.
I used my bio balls from the current sump and used CPR bio bale. We use bio bale at store and we love it because it has a greater bio area and it is easy to clean. You grab whole gallons at a time and swish it in a bucket of ro water. Instead of hundreds little balls rolling all over the place.

So the wet dry comes with pads but I used a foam pad from cobalt that I can cut to size for the drip tray. It is washable at it does not clog like the normal pads. In the pump area I use several sponge blocks. They trap a lot of debris.

This whole setup is much easier to maintain. Even though I loSt 20 gals of sump/water volume it was well worth it.